


Kind of like Castle but not quite

by Hieiandshino



Series: you let your body burn like never before [6]
Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Young Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe, Castle AU, F/M, Gen, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-09
Updated: 2013-06-09
Packaged: 2017-12-14 09:36:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/835437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hieiandshino/pseuds/Hieiandshino
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Detective Kate Bishop stops a man who just shot a woman with the help of her beloved friend Tommy, also known as Tom Shepherd, the author of the GLBT series <i>The Marvelous Mind of Billy Kaplan</i>.</p>
<p>(Tommy/Kate week, Day Five: Alternative Universe. Unrevised work)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kind of like Castle but not quite

**Author's Note:**

> Marvel (all media types) does not belong to me.
> 
> Loosely based on Castle. Mentions of the series, but no spoiler.
> 
> English isn’t my first language and this fanfic wasn’t revised by my beta. In other words: there will be mistakes.

Her lungs are killing her but she thinks it’s what happens when you run ten blocks nonstop. Detective Katherine Bishop puts one hand on the dirty wall of the alley and the other on one of her knees for a few seconds before straighten herself up to walk where the shooter is sprawled on the floor. The only reason he isn’t moving is because Tommy — in reality writer Tom Shepherd, author of the series _The Pride,_ its sequence, _The Runaways_ , and the highly acclaimed _The Marvelous Mind of Billy Kaplan_ — is sitting on him, giggling like a kid. Kate ignores Tommy’s laughter, noticing instead that his hair is a mess, worse than hers, and nudges him on the leg. For a moment, he doesn’t get up, still finding all this very funny, but when Kate arches an eyebrow, he puts an annoyed face, mumbles “Alright, alright” and finally gets up.

“Fuck you, Bishoprincess.” Spats the shooter, when Kate puts one of her feet in his back and starts telling him his rights. Tommy half barks a laugh, trying to hide it, because, really? _What a ridiculous nickname._ Kate says nothing; doesn’t do anything besides putting the handcuffs on the man a little too tight, but not enough for him to lose his hands — and if he does lose them, well, it’s not going to be a bad thing, really. He just shot a woman because she didn’t have her wallet with her, right next to Kate and Tommy, while she was on her break and he was telling her how went his trip to Europe to promote his new book of the Kaplan’s series.

To be fair, it wasn’t even Kate who started running after the guy. The woman was shot and she crouched immediately next to her, already calling an ambulance and checking her vitals. Tommy, however, started looking around and, when he spotted the shooter running away, the gun in one of his hands, he mumbled one “I see him” to Kate before taking off after the guy, screaming like a mad man, barely containing his grin: “Hey, I can see _you_!”.

When Kate noticed she was already screaming bloody murder and going after Tommy because, holy shit, there would be a _bloody_ murder all right, and then everyone would blame her because she let the author of Tom freaking Shepherd get killed. Clint, her partner for life, would never forgive her; would never understand how she let the man die before finishing _The Marvelous Mind of Billy Kaplan_ because he was a dumbass.

Now, Kate drops the man on the ground again and gives him the _look_ — the one she gives every bad guy and Clint when he eats the last donut — that tells him if he tries to escape it will be worse than already is. Next to her, Tommy seems to have found his lungs again, but decides to use the air he just stored inside his body to laugh one more time.

“Well… That was… Fun.” He says after he stops giggling like an idiot, and moves to sit on the guy again. The shooter gasps, which proves that Tommy is heavier than he looks. Kate thinks it must be the ego, because the writer is too scrawny to actually have some weight. “It’s been a long time since I ran like this!”

Kate then smiles, because she always thought he was the laziest man on Earth. “Did you use to run like this much?”

“That was how I paid for my superior education.” He says, smiling fondly of the memories that seem to be running inside his head. “Running and winning medals for Princeton University.”

“Cute.” The shooter mumbles and Kate kicks him on the knee because the adults are talking about interesting things that aren’t Tommy’s last crazy conquest. “Interesting.” She says, actually interested. “How did you start running?”

Tommy just shrugs. “Well, one does learn how to run to avoid being beaten into a coma when your hair color is different than the others and you’re too snarky to the people of New Jersey. I just used this ability in high school and later in college. Worked.” He says with a familiarity and nostalgia that scares Kate before she laughs out loud, not surprised that Tommy’s fondest memories are disturbing and sad. He seems to have this ability to turn bad stuff in Christmas tales. Maybe that’s why he is such a great writer, if everyone’s ( _Clint’s_ ) opinions of his books are true.

Before things turn into something full of feelings when Kate’s mind finally understands that Tommy is a precious human being by showing no bitterness for others’ past actions, she nudges him on his foot for him to get up for real so they can take the shooter to the crime scene to be properly arrested. “Your boyfriend is demented, Bishoprincess.” The handcuffed man says before he spats on the ground. Sadly for him, neither Tommy nor Kate show any emotion, just start walking out of the alley and drag him with them.

Later, when they are done having coffee with the police officers at the scene and Tommy is signing their autographs because of _The Pride_ (Runaways _is for teens and_ The Marvelous Mind of Billy Kaplan _is for gays, after all_ ) while Kate is giving the stinky eye to the paparazzi because she happens to be the only socialite who also is a detective, Tommy nudges her on the shoulder and smiles at Kate wickedly and charmingly. “Hey, you and me” and, for a writer, he likes to murder grammar a lot when he speaks “we’re like that cute couple in _Castle_.”

Cute. Couple. _Castle_. He is giving her enough ammo so she can kill him with humiliation because Tommy is nice like that with her — with Eli, Tommy wouldn’t even open his mouth to say something this _dork_ , and that is something since they bicker and say a lot of bullshit all the time to each other. She really wants to say ‘ _Except, apparently, one of us is gay’_ but that would only be added to the idea they _are_ the cute couple in _Castle_ , who say things like that to each other all the time. Not that Kate watched all the episodes with Clint. Nope, not at all. Besides, there are too many ears in here. If she ever mentions the word _gay_ and addresses it indirectly to a writer who writes _gay stuff,_ it could become a mean rumor that she wants no part in it. Kate knows better than anyone else what is to have people discussing her sexuality around her.

So Kate does what she can: she matches the wickedness and the charm of Tommy’s smiles on one of her own and tells him: “No. No we’re not.”

Because they really aren’t. Tommy’s nothing compared to the actor who also made Firefly.

Okay, she is kind of a dork too.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m thinking of writing more about this universe. What do you think?


End file.
